14-02-2025
Report Calls Out Worker Exploitation and Child Labor in Bangladesh
Protests and unrest over worker treatment have plagued the garment industry in Bangladesh in recent years, and a new report found that many of those workers—including children—have experienced exploitation.
The report from the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab and labor advocacy nonprofit GoodWeave International, 'Modern Slavery and Child Labor in Bangladesh's Garment Sector: Documenting Risks and Informing Solutions,' found that Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) sector has a long way to go in protecting workers.
More from Sourcing Journal
What the U.S. Foreign Aid Backlash Means for Garment Workers Worldwide
Port Strike in Bangladesh Causes Lingering Challenges Ahead of Ramadan
Garment Worker Safety in Bangladesh Risks 'Backslide Into Disaster'
According to the report—which is based on surveys and focus group discussions with more than 2,000 adult and minor workers across 20 industrial clusters in the country's key RMG hubs Dhaka and Chattogram—56 percent of factory workers have experienced threats or abuse at their job. Of those, 68 percent of adults and 90 percent of minors who reported abuse were female. And of those minors, 100 percent were illegally employed at RMG factories by working more than five hours a day—the maximum allowed by law.
Though Bangladesh has increased oversight and auditing in factories to reduce child labor, the study found that for every 15 RMG workers, one is a minor. And one-fifth of these children work in factories exclusively producing garments for the export market, while 80 percent work in factories that produce subcontracted or mixed-contract shipments.
The report also found that 32 percent of adult RMG workers are paid below minimum wage, and 7 percent of respondents' income has them living below the international poverty line, which is $2.15 per day, as defined by the World Bank. Thirty percent of workers earned below the monthly minimum wage of 12,000 BDT ($113). And while women work more than men, they earn an average of 2,000 BDT ($18) less per month than male counterparts.
Of those surveyed, 90 percent of workers said their wages were too low to maintain a decent standard of living, and only 9 percent said they are able to save money from their earnings.
Nearly a third of factory workers reported working more than 10 hours per day, six days a week, which exceeds the maximum limit for regular and overtime hours set by Bangladeshi and international law. This schedule serves as an indicator of forced labor.
'Our extensive research on modern slavery in supply chains shows that manufacturing is one of the high-risk industries for forced labor,' said Zoe Trodd, director of The Rights Lab. 'We are pleased to work with GoodWeave and Bangladesh Labor Foundation on this new research to understand the scale and nature of exploitation in garment production and identify the critical areas where change can help to ensure decent work conditions.'
Protests have broken out in Bangladesh over the past year, with one instance of violence and vandalism shutting down nearly 170 garment factories in Ashulia, Gazipur and Savar in September. At the time, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association blamed 'outsiders' for the unrest.
In November, a U.S. delegation of government and brand representatives met with leadership in Dhaka to affirm a shared commitment to 'independent, democratic trade unions for Bangladeshi workers and the businesses that employ them.' The group included executives from the American Apparel Footwear Association and member brands Gap Inc., Calvin Klein owner PVH Corp. and The North Face parent VF Corp., which collectively buy roughly $1.8 billion of clothing every year from Bangladesh.
In their report, The Rights Lab and GoodWeave outlined a number of recommendations for the Bangladeshi government, international buyers, suppliers, and NGOs and trade unions to mitigate these labor issues in the RMG sector. The report suggests all parties work to map supply chains and understand how lower-tier worksites feed into RMG exports; assess the risk of modern slavery and child labor in the RMG sector; enforce payment of living wages and overtime compensation; and cease, remediate and prevent abusive and discriminatory working conditions.
'This report by GoodWeave and The Rights Lab highlights persistent risks of exploitation in the hidden tiers of Bangladesh's garment supply chain while proposing systemic and scaled solutions,' said Jon Jacoby, CEO, GoodWeave International. 'By joining forces for more effective due diligence, brands, suppliers, governments, trade unions, and civil society can protect the rights and dignity of vulnerable workers and children while supporting the sustainable growth of this crucial industry for Bangladesh.'
